At Kirkdale station there are many tunnels all for different branches please see the other tunnel pages for the Walton On The Hill tunnels and Canada Dock tunnel.

 

The line running under the Kirkdale station site is the Canada Dock line and has 3 tunnels one leading from Oriel Road to the Atlantic Dock Junction openned in 1881 and the other from the Atlantic Dock Junction to Melrose Road openned in 1866 the last from Selwyn street to County Road near Spellow station also openned in 1866, and all are still in use today but for goods only.

 

The 2 tunnels currently used for the Merseyrail Northern Line openned in 1848, a short tunnel from Bedford Road to Southport Road and a longer tunnel from Hillside Close to Taylors Lane. Originally this tunnel was 1 long tunnel and much longer and hade 5 shafts along the way which have now been capped and the tunnel has now been made shorter due to cuttings being widened on either side and a cutting was added to the middle, this was done when the fast line tunnel from Exchange station was added as the old double track tunnel could not handle the amount of traffic.

 

There is 2 tunnels that run along side the tunnels currently used by Merseyrail, they where built later on thats why the design is different to the original tunnel next to it, they where used as a fast line from Liverpool Excahnge station until it closed in 1977. These tunnels are safeguarded for future rail use, in 2015 repair work was carried out on the tunnels. The pedestrian bridge that allowed people to pass over the Brewster street cutting was closed in the early 2000s and demolished on on 14th February 2016.